Creating Social Value by Building Extreme Low Carbon Homes

The construction industry is facing numerous demands. For example, a contractor will have to ensure they achieve their cost targets and time and quality contractual obligations whilst also meeting any social value and environmental expectations. Social value is an increasingly important concept within the UK construction industry. Its importance has been reinforced by legislation, its growing weighting in public sector procurement, and the enhanced expectations of private sector stakeholders. Construction contractors therefore need to evidence their social value credentials in order to increase procurement success and meet stakeholder expectations. Addressing climate concerns is also a topic of increasing focus. Achieving extremely low-carbon buildings has been proposed as one solution to this. The problem exists that there are numerous competing contemporary demands placed upon contractors. Such demands are often arguably viewed as disparate and competing and so potentially serve to restrict evolution and innovation across all areas. Practices that address both ultra-low carbon buildings and social value simultaneously could potentially serve to reduce the competing demands placed upon contractors and lead to a more focused and productive contractor output and greater benefits for the intended recipients. The links between social value and ultra-low carbon developments have not been well explored in the literature. This lack of research potentially hinders ultra-low carbon developments from achieving social value (SV), or at least the recognition of the SV impact such developments have. The aim of this research is to critically analyse both concepts to identify areas of cross-over and consider if ultra-low carbon design can satisfy multiple stakeholder demands. The findings indicate a focus on achieving ultra-low carbon projects would lead to increased levels of social value achieved.